Heather Zacker, Director of International Programs and Operations at Joslin, Speaks at the Opening Ceremony for Barbados’s Maria Holder Diabetes Centre for the Caribbean

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

On February 1, Heather Zacker, Director of International Programs and Operations at Joslin Diabetes Center, spoke at the opening ceremony for Barbados’s Maria Holder Diabetes Centre for the Caribbean. In her speech, Ms. Zacker noted that the Barbados Diabetes Foundation shares Joslin’s vision of a world free of diabetes and its complications and has taken an important step forward with the founding of the new center.

Since 2010, she and other Joslin Health Solutions International colleagues have provided advice and insight to the Barbados Diabetes Foundation to support planning for the center. Barbados’s diabetes prevalence is about 15 percent and its amputation rate is among the world’s highest. The new center will offer care, outreach, education, and surveillance to address these challenges in Barbados and the region.

Ms. Zacker shared the podium with, among others, members of the Barbados Diabetes Foundation including visionary leader Dr. Oscar Jordan, the Chairman of the Maria Holder Memorial Trust, the Prime Minister of Barbados, and the regional representative of the Pan American Health Organization.